Roaring Lion, recovering from colic surgery, will miss Southern Hemisphere breeding season

Roaring Lion, the Kentucky-bred who earned the 2018 Cartier Award as Europe's Horse of the Year, underwent emergency colic surgery Saturday in New Zealand and will miss the Southern Hemisphere breeding season.

In a release posted at 11 a.m. Sunday morning in New Zealand’s local time, Cambridge Stud, which was expected to stand the shuttle stallion this season, reported that Roaring Lion had made a “favourable recovery” in the first 24 hours post-surgery.

Roaring Lion, a son of leading sire Kitten's Joy out of the Street Sense mare Vionnet, was bred in Kentucky by RanJan Racing and sold for $160,000 to bloodstock agent David Redvers at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale. Running for Qatar Racing, he captured four consecutive Group 1 events in the second half of last year to lock up championship honors, despite finishing last in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in his career finale.

Roaring Lion retired to Tweenhills Stud in Gloucestershire, England, and began his stallion duties earlier this year, completing the season successfully before traveling to Cambridge Stud for the Southern Hemisphere season. He had just been released from mandatory post-travel quarantine on Saturday morning and, according to Cambridge, had been turned out in a paddock for a short time when colic symptoms were observed. The stallion was immediately sent to Cambridge Equine Hospital and underwent surgery.

“We want to act in the best interests of Sheikh Fahad and our shareholders,” Cambridge CEO Henry Plumptre said in the release. “Following major surgery, we feel it is appropriate to withdraw the horse from [Southern Hemisphere] service, with all shareholders being fully refunded. Our best-case scenario is that Roaring Lion makes a full recovery and can be returned safely to the U.K. While everyone at Cambridge Stud is shattered, we feel the obligation to Sheikh Fahad, David Redvers, and our shareholders is important. It is a massive blow to lose Roaring Lion [for the season] like this, but his ongoing welfare is now our prime concern.”